Uncovering the power of neurofeedback: a meta-analysis of its effectiveness in treating major depressive disorders.

Neurofeedback, a non-invasive intervention, has been increasingly used as a potential treatment for major depressive disorders. However, the effectiveness of neurofeedback in alleviating depressive symptoms remains uncertain. To address this gap, we conducted a comprehensive meta-analysis to evaluate the efficacy of neurofeedback as a treatment for major depressive disorders. We conducted a comprehensive meta-analysis of 22 studies investigating the effects of neurofeedback interventions on depression symptoms, neurophysiological outcomes, and neuropsychological function. Our analysis included the calculation of Hedges' g effect sizes and explored various moderators like intervention settings, study designs, and demographics. Our findings revealed that neurofeedback intervention had a significant impact on depression symptoms (Hedges' g = -0.600) and neurophysiological outcomes (Hedges' g = -0.726). We also observed a moderate effect size for neurofeedback intervention on neuropsychological function (Hedges' g = -0.418). As expected, we observed that longer intervention length was associated with better outcomes for depressive symptoms (ß = -4.36, P < 0.001) and neuropsychological function (ß = -2.89, P = 0.003). Surprisingly, we found that shorter neurofeedback sessions were associated with improvements in neurophysiological outcomes (ß = 3.34, P < 0.001). Our meta-analysis provides compelling evidence that neurofeedback holds promising potential as a non-pharmacological intervention option for effectively improving depressive symptoms, neurophysiological outcomes, and neuropsychological function in individuals with major depressive disorders.

Non-mass enhancement breast lesions: MRI findings and associations with malignancy.

Background: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a multi-sequence imaging technique. Although MRI is the most sensitive method for detecting breast cancer, it is limited in evaluating the malignant possibility of non-mass enhanced (NME) breast lesions. It is also rarely reported whether MRI can further indicate the invasion of the lesions. In this article, we explore the differentiation of MRI characteristics between benign and malignant NME lesions and determine which features are associated with invasion. Methods: The MRI findings of 118 NME lesions were evaluated retrospectively to explore the characteristics of the benign and malignant NME lesions in different MRI sequences including dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) MRI and diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI). The difference of MRI findings between benign and malignant NME lesions were determined by Pearson χ2 test or Fisher's exact test, and the diagnostic value of features for malignancy was evaluated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. Results: This study included 118 NME lesions (62 benign and 56 malignant) in 118 patients. We found a segmental distribution, clustered-ring enhancement, wash-out dynamic curve, and lower apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) value (P=0.01, <0.001, 0.02, 0.001) were associated with malignancy. Wash-out dynamic curves, diffusion restriction on DWI, lower ADC values were more advantageous in distinguishing invasive NME cancer from benign lesions than ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) (P<0.001, <0.001, 0.027). Further analysis showed that there were statistical differences between invasive carcinoma and carcinoma in situ in terms of wash-out dynamic curves, diffusion restriction on DWI and lower ADC values (P=0.001, 0.014, 0.024). Conclusions: MRI is a valuable way to identify malignant NME lesions and could predict the invasion of the lesions. Compared with carcinoma in situ, some sequences have more advantages in distinguishing invasive carcinoma from benign lesions.

Decoupled identification and compensation of nonlinear hysteresis cascading with linear dynamic in a moving magnet voice coil actuator.

The moving magnet voice coil actuator (MMVCA) is a promising choice for the long stroke nanopositioning stage with the advantage of low moving mass. However, the hysteresis observed in MMVCA limits further improvement on tracking performance. The hysteresis is cascading with the linear dynamic of the positioning stage, which makes common hysteresis identification inapplicable. In this paper, the cause and influence of hysteresis in MMVCA are analyzed, which reveal that the magnetic hysteresis leads to a hysteresis of force and causes motion accuracy to degrade. A modified rate-dependent Prandtl-Ishlinskii (P-I) model is proposed to describe the hysteresis in MMVCA. The decoupled method is implemented to identify the parameters of the linear dynamic model and nonlinear hysteresis model. The experimental results validate the feasibility of the proposed P-I model. Based on the hysteresis compensation, the peak-to-peak tracking errors are reduced by 30% and the root-mean-square (rms) tracking errors are decreased by 41% on average for the trajectories with amplitudes from 1 to 3 mm and frequencies from 1 to 5 Hz.

Using imaging to diagnose lipomatous ganglioneuroma: a case report and literature review.

We report a case of a well-defined lesion in an asymptomatic patient with lipomatous ganglioneuroma (LG) located close to the left thoracic spine. Its intensity was heterogeneous with adipocytes. The lesion extended into the spinal canal through the enlarged left intervertebral without bony erosion. The imaging, clinical, and pathological features of the tumor are analyzed. Contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed that the lesion was moderate enhanced. 18-F-fluoro-2-deoxyglucose-positron emission tomography/computed tomography (18FDG-PET/CT) demonstrated high 18-F-fluoro-2-deoxyglucose (18FDG) uptake of the tumor lesion. The finial preoperative diagnosis from our radiologists was that the tumor may be a liposarcoma or neurogenic tumor, but pathology showed that this was incorrect. Some related literatures were reviewed for reference to summarize imaging characteristics of this disease and to assist radiologists in making more accurate diagnoses. All of the lesions had adipocytes in reviewed literature, and the fat-suppressed images showed that there was some low signal intensity within the lesions, some lesions had widened neural foramina and extended into the spinal canal, and some lesion had calcifications. LG is an extremely rare variant of ganglioneuroma. Using the correct measurement of the CT value, applying MRI for fat-suppressed images, using in phase, out phase and contrast-enhanced sequences, using FDG-PET/CT, mastering LG imaging diagnostics characteristics, and combining all of this with clinical, morphological characteristics and pathology results can help clinical workers decrease the misdiagnosis rate of LG.

Genetic variants in Hippo pathway genes are associated with house dust mite-induced allergic rhinitis in a Chinese population.

BACKGROUND: House dust mite (HDM)-induced allergic rhinitis (AR) is a highly prevalent disease with bothersome symptoms. Genetic variants of the Hippo pathway genes play a critical role in the respiratory disease. However, no study has reported associations between variants of the Hippo pathway genes and HDM-induced AR risk. METHODS: Forty-three key genes in the Hippo pathway were selected from the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), Reactome pathway database, and previous reported studies. A case-control study of 222 cases and 237 controls was performed to assess the associations between 121 genetic variants in these genes and HDM-induced AR risk. DNeasy Blood & Tissues Kits were used for extracting genomic DNA from the venous blood and Infinium Asian Screening Array BeadChips for performing genotyping. A logistic regression model was applied to evaluate the effects of variants on HDM-induced AR risk. The false discovery rate (FDR) method was utilized to correct for multiple testing. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was plotted to obtain the cut-off value of total IgE for the diagnosis of HDM-induced AR. Histone modification and transcription factor binding sites were visualized by UCSC genome browser. Moreover, expression qualitative trait loci (eQTL) analysis was obtained from Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) database. RESULTS: We found that rs754466 in DLG5 was significantly associated with a decreased HDM-induced AR risk after FDR correction (adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 0.52, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.36-0.74, p = 3.25 × 10-4 , PFDR  = 3.93 × 10-2 ). The rs754466 A allele reduced the risk of HDM-induced AR in the subgroup of moderate/severe total nasal symptom score (TNSS). Furthermore, rs754466 was associated with a high mRNA expression of DLG5. Additionally, histone modification and transcription factor binding sites were rich in the region containing rs754466. CONCLUSION: Our findings indicated that rs754466 in DLG5 decreased the susceptibility to HDM-induced AR.

MRI-based Bosniak Classification of Cystic Renal Masses, Version 2019: Interobserver Agreement, Impact of Readers' Experience, and Diagnostic Performance.

Background The 2019 Bosniak classification (version 2019) of cystic renal masses (CRMs) provides a systematic update to the currently used 2005 Bosniak classification (version 2005). Further validation is required before widespread application. Purpose To evaluate the interobserver agreement of MRI criteria, the impact of readers' experience, and the diagnostic performance between version 2019 and version 2005. Materials and Methods From January 2009 to December 2018, consecutive patients with CRM who had undergone renal MRI and surgical-pathologic examination were included in this retrospective study. On the basis of version 2019 and version 2005, all CRMs were independently classified by eight radiologists with different levels of experience. By using multirater κ statistics, interobserver agreement was evaluated with comparisons between classifications and between senior and junior radiologists. Diagnostic performance between classifications by dichotomizing classes I-IV into lower (I-IIF) and higher (III-IV) classes was compared by using the McNemar test. P < .05 was considered to indicate a statistically significant difference. Results A total of 207 patients (mean age ± standard deviation, 49 years ± 12; 139 male and 68 female patients) with CRMs were included. Overall, interobserver agreement was higher with version 2019 than version 2005 (weighted κ = 0.64 vs 0.50, respectively; P < .001). Interobserver agreement between senior and junior radiologists did not differ between version 2019 (weighted κ = 0.65 vs 0.64, respectively; P = .71) and version 2005 (weighted κ = 0.54 vs 0.46; P < .001). Diagnostic specificity for malignancy was higher with version 2019 than with version 2005 (83% [92 of 111] vs 68% [75 of 111], respectively; P < .001), without any difference in sensitivity (89% [85 of 96] vs 84% [81 of 96]; P = .34). Conclusion In the updated Bosniak classification, interobserver agreement improved and was unaffected by observers' experience. The diagnostic performance with version 2019 was superior to that with version 2005, with higher specificity. Published under a CC BY 4.0 license. Online supplemental material is available for this article. See also the editorial by Choyke in this issue.

A survey on design of reaction spheres and associated speed and orientation measurement technologies.

With the rapid development of micro-spacecraft, miniaturization has become a key problem in attitude control. As an angular momentum exchange actuator, a single reaction sphere can generate multi-DOF output torques and satisfy the requirement of three-axis attitude control. This enables it to be a potential alternative for micro-spacecraft attitude control system. Categorized by the driving principles, the various design techniques of reaction spheres are firstly reviewed, including the spherical motor based and the multi-driving-wheels based. Their advantages and disadvantages are summarized. In order to realize the closed-loop control of the reaction sphere, the techniques of measuring the speed and orientation of the reaction spheres are subsequently reviewed. These include rotary encoders or gyroscope with gimbal guideway, photoelectric encoding ring, machine vision, Hall sensor, color sensor and piezoelectric sensor. By promoting the popularization of the concept of reaction spheres, it is expected to provide new ideas for the miniaturization design and attitude control of micro-spacecraft.

The design and kinetostatic modeling of 3PPR planar compliant parallel mechanism based on compliance matrix method.

Compliant Parallel Mechanisms (CPMs) are widely used in micro/nano-positioning systems. In recent years, CPMs with a large travel range (≥1 mm) have been getting increasing attention. In this paper, a 3 Prismatic-Prismatic-Revolute (3PPR) planar CPM with a motion range of 5 mm × 5 mm × 5° is designed. The mechanical structure is characterized by the application of three joints based on a compliant four-bar mechanism, which guarantees the motions along/about the specific axes to improve motion accuracy. A double blade rotary pivot is served as a revolute joint to decrease the drift of pivot and produce a large rotation range without loss of compactness. The compliance matrix method is implemented to kinetostatic modeling, and the input coupling effect, which is always neglected or modeled complicatedly in 3-Degree-of-Freedom planar CPMs, is involved with the principle of superposition. The feasibility of the mechanical design and the accuracy of the developed kinetostatic model are validated by finite element analysis and experiments, respectively. The results indicate that the modeling method based on the compliance matrix method is concise, effective, and accurate, and can be extended to other more complicated CPMs.

Enhanced sensitivity shaping by data-based tuning of disturbance observer with non-binomial filter.

This work presents a new method of sensitivity shaping for motion control systems with disturbance observer (DOB). Although the traditional DOB design has been proved to be an effective means of rejecting disturbances in many applications, shaping of the closed-loop sensitivity is constrained since the Q-filter in DOB is usually restricted to a standard Butterworth or binomial form, where the cutoff frequency is the only tunable parameter. To overcome this limitation and achieve better performance for more demanding motion systems, a general form of the Q-filter is employed in this work. An data-based iteratively tuning procedure is subsequently developed according to a pre-defined cost function, so that the disturbance rejection in the low-frequency band is improved while the high-frequency noise attenuation and robust stability are not compromised. This method is data-based in the sense that the sensitivity shaping process is conducted based on the input-output data collected from the operating motion system, instead of relying on the identified system model. Simulation and experimental results are presented to show the advantage of this data-based sensitivity shaping approach.

A novel constrained H2 optimization algorithm for mechatronics design in flexure-linked biaxial gantry.

The biaxial gantry is widely used in many industrial processes that require high precision Cartesian motion. The conventional rigid-link version suffers from breaking down of joints if any de-synchronization between the two carriages occurs. To prevent above potential risk, a flexure-linked biaxial gantry is designed to allow a small rotation angle of the cross-arm. Nevertheless, the chattering of control signals and inappropriate design of the flexure joint will possibly induce resonant modes of the end-effector. Thus, in this work, the design requirements in terms of tracking accuracy, biaxial synchronization, and resonant mode suppression are achieved by integrated optimization of the stiffness of flexures and PID controller parameters for a class of point-to-point reference trajectories with same dynamics but different steps. From here, an H2 optimization problem with defined constraints is formulated, and an efficient iterative solver is proposed by hybridizing direct computation of constrained projection gradient and line search of optimal step. Comparative experimental results obtained on the testbed are presented to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.

SVD-based Preisach hysteresis identification and composite control of piezo actuators.

In this paper, the singular value decomposition (SVD) based identification and compensation of the hysteretic phenomenon in piezo actuators are addressed using a Preisach model. First, this paper presents an SVD-based least squares algorithm and a revision approach of the identification through updating the SVD. With the identified parameters and a log of the memory curve, a Preisach-based inversion compensator is constructed which is complemented with a feedback controller to address the inevitable and residual modeling errors. Experimental results are furnished for both the identification and compensation approaches. The Preisach-based feedforward controller significantly improves the tracking performance and reduces the root-mean-square (RMS) tracking error of a PID controller by 76.7% and 89% at 1 Hz and 25 Hz, respectively. With the proposed composite controller, the percent-RMS errors at 1 Hz and 25 Hz are reduced to 0.035% and 0.31%, respectively.

[Relationship between beta amyloid protein 1-40 and post-operative delirium after oral and maxillofacial surgery in elderly patients].

OBJECTIVE: To determine the incidence of post-operative delirium after oral and maxillofacial surgery under general anesthesia in elderly patients, and to examine its association with plasma concentrations of beta amyloid protein 1-40 (Abeta1-40). METHODS: Fifty patients underwent elective oral and maxillofacial surgery were divided into two groups: Group C (n=20) aged from 20 to 60 years old, and Group T (n=30) aged from 62 to 78 years old. The two group received the same general anesthesia. Delirium rating scale-revised-98 (DRS-R-98) was used as an instrument to diagnose and access the postoperative delirium of the two groups. The scores of DRS-R-98 were recorded before operation (T0) and at 24 h (T1), 48 h (T2), 72 h(T3) and 96 h(T4) after the operation. Serial measurements of serum concentrations of Abeta1-40 were also performed at the same time. RESULTS: The incidence of post-operative delirium after oral and maxillofacial surgery in Group T was 20.0%. The concentrations of plasma Abeta1-40 in group T were much higher than group C at TO, T1, T2 and T3 significantly (P < 0.01). The concentrations of plasma Abeta1-40 at T1 and T2 were higher than those at TO in the same group (P < 0.05). The scores of DRS-R-98 in Group T at T3 and T4 were much higher than those at T1 and Group C significantly (P < 0.01). CONCLUSION: The constant increase of plasma Abeta1-40 may be one of the important factors related to post-operative delirium in elderly patients underwent oral and maxillofacial surgery.

[Influence of propofol and isoflurane on cytokines response to cancer surgery during perioperative period].

OBJECTIVE: To compare the influence of propofol and isoflurane on pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokine response to perioperative period of tongue cancer surgery. METHODS: Twenty-four adult patients undergone the operation of tongue cancer were assigned to two groups randomly, propofol group (Group P) and isoflurane group (Group I). In group P, anesthesia was induced with fentanyl 2-3 microg/kg, propofol 2 mg/kg, atracurium 0.6 mg/kg and maintained with propofol 5-8 mg x kg(-1) x h(-1) and inhalation of 50% nirous oxide (N2O:O2=50%:50%). In group I, anesthesia was induced with 3%-4% isoflurane, fentanyl 2-3 microg/kg, diazepam 0.06-0.1 mg/kg, atracurium 0.6 mg/kg and maintained with inhalation of 50% N2O and isoflurane (ended-tidal isoflurane was maintained at 0.6%), in two groups atracurium was given intermittently. Blood samples were taken from peripheral vein before anesthesia (TO), at the end of operation (T1), 24 h (T2) and 48 h (T3) after operation for determination of serum IL-6 and IL-10 concentrations. The mean arterial pressure (MAP) and body temperature in two groups were recorded. RESULTS: IL-6 and IL-10 levels increased significantly in two groups at T1, T2 and T3 compared with T0 (P < 0.01). The increasing trend of IL-6 and IL-10 levels were similar in both groups, whereas the level of IL-6 at T1 in propofol group was lower than that of isoflurane group significantly (P < 0.01), however the level of IL-10 was much higher in propofol group than that of isoflurane group at T1 and T2 (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The influence of total intravenous anesthesia of propofol on post-operation inflammatory response is much gentler than isoflurane.